Emerging Leaders

As I walked through the IDP camps of northern Uganda, ravaged by war, my heart sank. They were filled with stench, poverty, famine, death and thousands of desolate hearts. “Where,” I asked the Lord, “do you even begin?” If I could bring medical help, it was needed. If I could bring education, it was needed. If I could bring food, it was desperately needed.

One-thousand people were dying a day from starvation, disease, war raids or ambushes. Water was scarce with only one water hole to meet the needs of 5,000, but food was scarcer still. Food deliveries came every two months with enough food to feed each person in the camps for only two days. Medical help was nearly non-existent. If I could bring hospitals, churches, Bible schools, and Bibles, they were all desperately needed.

But, before any of these urgent needs could be met, the war had to stop.

Food Delivered by NGO

Arise and Shine

A day of prayer was held in Gulu, and the intense prayer of over a thousand urgent hearts, crying out to the Lord brought in the very real experience of II Chronicles 7:14. As the power of prayer pushed back darkness, forgiveness began entering the people’s hearts, and the presence of the Prince of Peace Himself began to restore hope and healing to the land. People were “coming out of their graves” – graves of despair, hopelessness, darkness, and aimlessness. (Ezekiel 37:12-14)

The people cry out to God in Gulu stadium during the day of prayer – 2005

Physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional healing began to take place in the hearts of the people, and as hope sprang to life so did the people’s sense of destiny… Purpose, vision, and fulfillment returned again to the people of northern Uganda.

“Let Me Live in the Camps”

I had asked the Lord, “Let me live in the camps with the people, to walk where they walk, and feel what they feel.” But He put on my heart these words:

“If you live in the camps, you can reach one life, or one village. That is the circle you will touch, and those are the ones you will see changed.

But, if you will live in the town of Gulu, centrally located, I will bring one life and one village to you. As you teach them and train them, they will run and train others, who will train others, who will train others, and instead of seeing one life saved and healed, discipled and empowered, you will see 1,000. Instead of seeing just one village converted and transformed, you will see 1,000. Which would you rather see!”

Carole in an IDP camp

I chose the latter – to follow the pattern of II Timothy 2:2 over and over again in accelerated multiplication. “Fruit that remains” (John 15:16), is when the leaders you train are now training others. It is multiplication without your direct effort.

Listening with hungry hearts

They Are the Land

As the people poured into the little house I was living in during the war, after the massive northern prayer movement in 2004, the Lord put on my heart:

“Now I’m healing the land… THEY are the land… their lives, their families, their purposes, their dreams, their businesses, their callings, and their destiny. Help them unwrap the grave clothes that have bound them, hindered them, held them back, and let them run!”

“Help facilitate their dreams and empower their purposes. Wash their feet for healing, believe in them until they come out of insecurities, encourage them and pray until brokenness is healed, and be a part of II Chronicles 7:14 in action ‘…and I will heal their land.’ They are the land, and they will be healed and restored through the hearts and hands that are willing for me to use them.”

Plucked from the Fire

These are the leaders God has “plucked from the fire” and is transforming from the inside out. After the change within, it flows without…all around them, and they are now the agents of hope… carrying the same vision, healing, passion, and truth to others to see them freed from limitations and hindrances.

Foundations must be laid within the heart, and God is doing that daily. Foundations of truth, character, integrity, ethics, and principles of wisdom, respect, hard work, and Kingdom culture bring transformation that lasts.

A class at our Bible college

This transformation is already happening in children, in women, in men, in whole families, in the government offices, in schools, in media, in the churches, in businesses, in the marketplace, in universities, in hospitals, and in the prisons.

Praising before a portable Bible school graduation ceremony

Emerging Leaders

No one can reach a people better than the indigenous people themselves. They know the culture, motives, traditions, languages, and mindsets. These are the leaders of the land for each tribe and each generation. They need only to be trained and empowered.

Passionate preaching of the Word

These are the instruments of true change… These are the leaders being equipped today and leading tomorrow. Learning today, and multiplying it in others the next…

These are transformed hearts who are set in motion, to transform nations…